Artificial Intelligence 4 Animal Science

Programme

Wednesday 4th June 2025 - 14:00 - 18:00

Session A: Ethics and Industry Adoption of AI in Animal Science: Addressing practical implications and challenges, including bias and data ownership, as well as industry implementations of AI

Any abstract of researchers, companies, and collaborations between them, exploring the ethics and adoption of AI in animal science, examining the challenges faced in implementing AI technologies, focusing on issues like bias, data ownership, and ethical concerns, while highlighting industry implementations of AI

Chair

Utrecht University (Netherlands)

Co-chair

ILVO (Belgium)

Session B: Emerging AI Applications in Precision Livestock Farming: Innovations in generative AI, digital twins, large language models (LLMs), big data, and robotics

This session explores cutting-edge AI applications in precision livestock farming, including generative AI, digital twins, large language models (LLMs), big data, and robotics. We welcome abstracts presenting innovative research, practical solutions, and case studies, as well as prospective studies on how these technologies will transform advisory services and decision-support tools

Chair

University of Georgia (United States)

Co-chair

IDELE (France)

Thursday 5th June 2025 - 09:00 - 13:00

Plenary Session

Thursday 5th June 2025 - 14:00 - 18:00

Session C: Advancements in Data Collection and Integration: Exploring cutting-edge sensors, multi-sensor systems, data labelling, and tools driving animal science innovation

This session will focus on the latest technologies and methodologies regarding wearable and environmental sensors that monitor animal health, behavior, and welfare, on the integration of multiple data sources for comprehensive insights, such as combining video analytics, physiological monitoring, and environmental tracking, methods for annotating and preparing data for advanced analytics, machine learning and predictive modelling

Chair

Research Institute of Animal Science, HAO-Demeter (Greece)

Co-chair

UW-Madison (United States)

Session D: Efficient AI Modeling and Data Processing: Tools, algorithms, and workflows for scalable AI solutions

This session focuses on innovative tools, algorithms, and workflows that enable scalable and efficient AI solutions tailored to animal science. It highlights novel methodologies, optimization techniques, and practical applications of AI that advance data-driven decision-making in the field

Chair

Agroscope (Switzerland)

Co-chair

ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

Friday 6th June 2025 - 09:00 - 13:00

Session E: Advancing Digital Biomarkers with AI: Breakthroughs in animal identification, health and welfare monitoring, behavior analysis, and remote sensing technologies

This session delves into the innovative use of AI and advanced sensing technologies—such as computer vision, acoustic analysis, and wearable sensors—to uncover and interpret digital biomarkers in livestock. It emphasizes the transformative potential of digital biomarkers in revolutionizing animal identification, behavior analysis, and health and welfare monitoring, paving the way for more precise and data-driven approaches in animal care and management

Chair

City University of Hong Kong - CityU (China)

Co-chair

ILVO (Belgium)

Session F: AI for Research and Farm Management: Leveraging AI to address research challenges in various animal science disciplines and improve informed decision-making

This session explores how artificial intelligence is transforming animal science, from addressing complex research challenges to optimizing farm management practices. Learn how AI-driven tools are enhancing data analysis, improving animal health and productivity, and enabling informed, sustainable decision-making across various disciplines

Chair

Natural Resources Institute Finland - Luke (Finland)

Co-chair

ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

Session G: Free communications of AI in animal science (including keynotes)

Any abstract on Artificial Intelligence in Animal Science (and particularly livestock science) that does not fit in any of the other sessions can be submitted here. Abstracts of keynotes should also be submitted here

© 2023 EAAP – All rights reserved

Mona Giersberg

Mona Giersberg is Associate Professor and coordinator of the AI & Animal Welfare Lab at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her research is located at the crossroads of (animal) welfare, sensor-based and precision livestock farming (PLF), and ethics. As a researcher she realized that many animal-related societal issues are too complex to be tackled by the methods of animal science alone. Giersberg sought collaboration with working groups in the fields of humanities and social sciences and expanded her methodologies to include various empirical and non-empirical approaches from these disciplines. Currently, she works on a systematic and strategic approach to transdisciplinary collaboration in the area of responsible AI for animal welfare. Giersberg holds a PhD on the topic of biometric data of farm animals and computer-based techniques to collect these. It was defended with honors and received several awards. Before moving to Utrecht, Giersberg worked as a researcher at Wageningen University and Research (NL) and at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation (DE).

Pieter-Jan De Temmerman

Pieter-Jan De Temmerman has 15 years of interdisciplinary professional experience and leads the Precision Livestock Farming Artificial Intelligence team at ILVO (Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Belgium). He is a member of ILVO’s AI Working Group and the Ethical Committee on Artificial Intelligence.
The collaborative research of his team spans diverse domains and projects, including pigs (PigID, PigLife, aWish), dairy cattle (ClawCare, XGain), demersal fisheries (Visim II, Optifish, Everyfish, Marine Beacon), new genomic techniques (Detective), and emerging technologies such as hyperspectral imaging, drones, and robotics (FAIR, AgrifoodTEF). His expertise encompasses practical applications in AI-powered livestock monitoring, with a strong focus on deep learning, computer vision, (big) data analytics, knowledge graphs, and precision farming innovations.
Academically, Pieter-Jan holds a Master’s in Statistical Data Analysis and both a Master’s and PhD in Bioscience Engineering. He has contributed to 25 scientific works on computer vision and nanomaterials using transmission electron microscopy. Since 2023, he has focused his research on applying AI to animal science, combining his agricultural background with his computational expertise.
Recent work of his team includes five scientific works on topics such as segmentation and classification of demersal fish species, claw health monitoring in dairy cows, outdoor cattle tracking, and behavioral analysis and identification of piglets, sows, and fattening pigs.

Lilong Chai

Dr. Lilong Chai is an Associate Professor & Engineering Specialist in the Department of Poultry Science in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia (UGA). He is also an affiliated faculty member of the UGA Institute for Integrative Precision Agriculture. His research interests include climate-smart animal production, precision poultry farming, and animal health and welfare. Dr. Chai has published 280 scientific publications (including 90 journal articles, 140 conference papers/abstracts, and 50 extension articles), served as PI/Co-PI on 45 funded grants/contracts totaling approximately $5.5 million, and received 20 professional awards/honors. He currently serves as the Coordinator/Program Chair for the Georgia Precision Poultry Farming Conference and Georgia Layer Conference, two annual extension poultry training programs at UGA; Section Editor for Poultry Science journal and Guest Editor for Animal Welfare Collection of Scientific Reports journal; and grant proposal reviewer/panelist for USDA-NIFA, NSF, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canadian Poultry Research Council, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Dutch Research Council, and German Research Foundation.

Clément Allain

Clément Allain is an agricultural engineer specializing in animal production science (INP – ENSAT, 2006). Since 2010, he has served as an R&D project manager and research engineer in the field of precision livestock farming. Over the years, Clément has actively contributed to several national and European projects focused on digital technologies in Livestock farming. His current research interests include precision livestock farming and digitalization, the economic and sociological impacts of new technologies on farms, as well as innovations in 3D imaging, computer vision, and artificial intelligence.

Maria-Anastasia Karatzia

Maria-Anastasia Karatzia grew up in Thessaloniki, and studied in the School of Agriculture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), where she graduated from with a specialization in Animal Science. Afterwards, she completed a Master’s degree course in Animal Science as well, and later she defended her thesis on clinical nutrition in ruminants at the School of Veterinary Medicine (AUTH). In 2017, she was appointed as a researcher at the Research Institute of Animal Science of the Hellenic Agricultural Organization “Demeter” in the field of Farm Animal Husbandry. In correspondence to her research interests (precision livestock technologies in transhumant flocks and development of animal-based welfare indicators for an approach towards improving the welfare of small ruminants), Maria was elected as secretary of the Commission on Precision Livestock Farming of the EAAP.

Victor Cabrera

Dr. Cabrera combines applied research, interdisciplinary approaches, and participatory methods to deliver practical, data-driven, user-friendly, and scientific decision support tools for dairy farm management. These scientific tools are improving dairy farm profitability, environmental stewardship, and long-term sustainability. Dr. Cabrera’s research and extension programs have a global impact. Dr. Cabrera and his workgroup have developed 50 decision support tools, published 100+ refereed articles, and 12 book chapters. Dr. Cabrera has presented in 100+ scientific sessions, and given extension talks in 400+ extension meetings in Wisconsin, other States, and around the world. Dr. Cabrera’s work in the past 15 years has been pivotal to attract $5.5+ million to support his research and extension initiatives. Dr. Cabrera has been distinguished with the Excellence in International Activities Award from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, the American Dairy Science Association DeLaval Dairy Extension Award, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Vilas Faculty Mid-Career Investigator Award, the Second Mile Extension award of the Wisconsin Association of County Agricultural Agents, the Pound Extension Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Florida School of Natural Resources and Environment, the Foundation Scholar Award in Dairy Production from the American Dairy Science Association, and the Alfred Toepfer Faculty Fellow Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Hassan-Roland Nasser

Dr. Hassan-Roland Nasser is a Researcher in Agroscope’s Digital Production Group, where he joined in 2020. He leads the group’s computer vision initiative, a flagship project aiming at democratizing the use of computer vision in agriculture. His research focuses on applying data analysis techniques, particularly image analysis through deep learning, to agricultural challenges. He collaborates closely with animal and crop scientists to answer research questions.
Before joining Agroscope, Dr. Nasser held academic positions at several French and Lebanese universities for six years (Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science). He earned a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Technology of Compiegne and a PhD in Computational Neuroscience from the French National Institute for Computer Science (INRIA).

Hubert Pausch

Hubert Pausch studied Agricultural Sciences at TU Munich with a focus on Animal Production. He received his PhD in 2013 under the supervision of Prof. Ruedi Fries at TU Munich, and did a Postdoc under the supervision of Prof. Mike Goddard at the Center for AgriBiosciences, in Bundoora, Victoria, Australia. Hubert has been Professor of Animal Genomics with the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich since May 2017. His main research area is the development and implementation of statistical and bioinformatic approaches for combining sequence data from key animals in a population with incomplete data from animals from the genomic selection. His team successfully identified allelic variations which have economic and health-related effects. Another research focus of the Animal Genomics group is genome assembly and pangenome integration in order to identify trait-associated structural variation.

Kai Liu

Dr. Kai Liu is an Assistant Professor specializing in precision livestock farming and animal behaviour and welfare at the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong SAR, China). He earned his PhD in Agricultural and Biological Engineering (Animal Production Systems Engineering) from Iowa State University (USA) and a bachelor’s degree in Biosystems Engineering from Zhejiang University (China). In 2018, he embarked on a postdoctoral research position at the Swine Teaching and Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania (USA). As an agricultural and biological engineer deeply committed to animal agriculture, he is dedicated to applying innovative engineering strategies and data-driven solutions to address global challenges in food animal production and sustainability, with a keen emphasis on the ever-growing issues related to animal welfare and behaviour. His scholarly efforts have resulted in the publication of 38 papers in esteemed SCI journals. Recognized for his contributions, he was honoured as part of the 2019 Class “New Faces of ASABE – Professionals” by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. Since May 2022, he has served as an associate Editor at Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. He is also a board member of China Animal Agriculture Association.

Jarissa Maselyne

Jarissa Maselyne is coordinating the Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) research group of ILVO (Flanders research institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Belgium). She is also President of the PLF-commission at EAAP and editor for the journal Animal.
She is a Master of Science in Electromechanical Engineering (Ghent University), and PhD graduate in Bioscience Engineering (KU Leuven & ILVO).
Jarissa has been involved in several H2020 projects related to Internet of Things (IOF2020), High Performance Computing (CYBELE) and Renewable Energy (RES4LIVE) for livestock farming. She is coordinating the Horizon Europe project aWISH and the national VLAIO project PigID with her team. aWISH deals with large-scale automated animal welfare monitoring of broilers and pigs through novel sensors and AI algorithms at the slaughterhouse, to measure welfare indicators tracing back to the farm, catching, transport and slaughter process itself. PigID is focused on helping pig farmers start with electronic identification and quantifying the added value of individual pig management. Other running projects include XGain, PIGWEB, EU-LI-PHE, agrifoodTEF, digital twin for pigs, etc. The PLF team at ILVO thus deals with topics from research over innovation to industry adoption, and from sensors over AI and digital twins to informed decision making for farmers and other stakeholders.

Matti Pastell

Matti Pastell is a Research professor in Future Farming technologies in the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke). He has been working on AI in agriculture and precision livestock farming applications for over 15 years. He is working on sensor-based welfare assessment of dairy cattle, sensor-based phenotyping and developing digital twins of farming systems. He is currently coordinating the case studies of the Digi4Live project https://digi4live.eu/ .

Mutian Niu

Mutian Niu is an Assistant Professor of Animal Nutrition at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, since June 2021, following prior appointments at the University of Pennsylvania and Farmer’s Business Network, Inc. His research is dedicated to advancing sustainable animal agriculture, with a focus on ruminant nutrition, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen utilization efficiency, data science applications, and precision livestock farming.
At ETH Zurich, he oversees a comprehensive mentorship program, supervising postdoctoral researchers, doctoral candidates, and Master’s and Bachelor’s thesis projects in areas such as methane mitigation, nutrient efficiency, and development of technilogies to monitor and improve animal welfare.